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Irish set to open season in Toledo

Eric Retter | Friday, September 10, 2004

Notre Dame is set to kick of its 2004-05 campaign. Coach John Jasinski, who signed a contract extension in the offseason to continue coaching the Irish, will lead a strong Notre Dame team into the Inverness Intercollegiate Tournament in Toledo, Ohio this weekend. The field will feature 13 teams, including Michigan State and host Toledo. The event will be held at the prestigious Inverness Club, which has previously played host to four U.S. Open championships. The Irish, who were last season’s Big East champions, begin the season ranked 92nd in the Golfweek/Sagarin Index. The Irish hope to improve from that initial ranking this season.With the lineup they have, strong improvement is a definite goal. The Irish return all eight monogram winners from last year’s team, including all five golfers who competed in the NCAA Regionals. Three freshmen, Mike King, Eddie Peckels and Greg Rodgers, will also join the team. Rodgers and Peckels both were ranked in the top-50 as high school golfers. Despite their skills, the freshmen may struggle to see competition this season. Juniors Tommy Balderston and Eric Deutsch and sophomore Cole Isban all garnered All-Big East selections last season. Senior Steve Colnitis and junior Scott Gustafson, who was an all-Big East selection two seasons ago, captain the team. The Irish did a lot of work over the summer, and that work should pay dividends this season. Isban came within two strokes of qualifying for match play at the 2004 U.S. Amateur Championship. Deutsch and Gustafson finished 1-2 in both the Minnesota State Amateur Championship and the Twin Cities Amateur Championship. The Irish hope to begin building on those successes this weekend. The tournament will begin with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. Friday, with two rounds being played that day. Play will resume Saturday at 2 p.m. for the third and final round.